My travels through the sleazy world of independent wrestling as seen through the hazy murk of nostalgia and filtered through an addiction to pop culture. Written by a whiny, inconsistent, absent-minded procrastinating Grammar-Nazi.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I guess we should say Posters, one in English and the other bilingual.

To mark the release of our Festival Poster, we are going to have a contest. The rules are simple. All you have to do is print out one of our posters, hang it up somewhere cool where young filmmakers can see it and send us a picture of the poster. It should be obvious from the picture in what city or country the poster is being displayed.

We will feature the best pictures on our web-site, blog, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. The person who submits what we believe to be the best picture wins a free subscription to our web-site and we will waive the submission fee for a newly submitted film of the winner's choosing. We will announce the winner May 1st.

You can download a PDF of the English Poster from HERE or the Bilingual Poster from HERE.

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The YoungCuts Film Festival presents Great Short Films by the World's Best Young Filmmakers 25 and under. If that sounds like your film, SUBMIT TODAY!

For the first time this year, we invite the public to become a YoungCuts judge by subscribing to our site, for about the price of a movie ticket, to watch and vote for films submitted to the Festival. Based on this People's Choice voting we will announce 20 films selected to be included in our Top 100 films - announced in mid-July and played during the YoungCuts Film Festival September 28th and 29th.

Our subscribers can already watch a selection of films from the 2011 YoungCuts Film Festival, plus watch and vote for our Early Bird films as well as films that almost made it into last year's Festival in our Second Chance or Repechage Film Gallery. We will be adding new film galleries every two weeks until the end of June, so there will be plenty of great films to watch and vote for!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

I was at the C*4 show put on during the weekend blizzard. (Those guys really need to invest in a mad scientist with a weather control machine.) Since I live-tweeted the show, freakingout my co-host on the Mousterpiece Cinema podcast, I thought that I should transcribe my tweets and add a few other random thoughts.

Live Tweet: Razen beats Ryan Rogan in 3:51 after Rogan whiffs on a top rope spinning moonsault. Not sure if it is significant that the best spots in the Dark Match were moves that hit nothing but mat.

C*4 Official Results: Razan pinned Ryan Rogan.

Random Thoughts: The second missed move was a sweet elbow drop also by Rogan. Mixing big whiffed spots into a dark match are a good idea. They emphasize that you are on the undercard, missing something that someone higher on the card would hit. They also allow you to show-off without stealing anyone's thunder.

C*4: Jae Rukin pinned Michael Von Payton in a competitive match. The end saw Rahim Ali emerge from the locker room, shouting at MVP, causing him to be distracted. Rukin took the opening, and managed to score the win.

RT: Jae Rukin has a great unique look, like an #OccupyWallStreet protestor crossed with a Ninja and interbred with a Chia Pet. He is also a hell of a wrestler. He does need to work at involving the crowd a bit more in his matches. He has a tendency to wrestle with his back to the audience.

C*4: Twiggy was victorious over Addy Starr via DQ, when she ignored the referee’s 5-count in the ropes. Addy lost her ‘cool’ following an ass-slap by Twiggy. Despite the disqualification victory, Twiggy celebrated it as a major win.

RT: This was so good. I could easily write 1,000 words just on this match and I may yet.

C*4: In a wild and entertaining contest, The Afterparty of Cecil Nyx and Chaz Lovely overcame three other teams to claim the victory. The other participants in the match included the teams of Michael Style & “Superstar” Shayne Hawke, The Incredible Hunks, and the tandem of Lucky Sabiti and HC Ryder.

RT: The unlikley Cecil Nyx victory tour continues. Hawke was great, playing up the fact that Nyx was too damn fat for him to power-slam. Nyx is a case study on achieving more with less and slowing things down. Because Nyx completely involves the crowd, when he is able to string together three moves in a row without screwing up, the crowd celebrates like their baby son just took his first steps.

*****

LT: Pat Skillz threatens to throw everyone out into the snow if he doesn't get a match Darkko answers. To the surprise of absolutely no one (except Pat Skillz) Darkko beats Pat Skillz in 3:13.

C*4: The debuting Darkko pinned Pat Skillz in an open challenge. Skillz came to the ring before the match and announced that he was angry with C*4 management not giving him a match on the event, and said that as one of the owners of CRW that he would shut the show down, if he did not get a match. A second later, Darkko walked out of the back and was happy to oblige Skillz’s wish.

RT: Darkko is awesome. Pat Skillz does a pretty good impression of road kill.

*****

LT: Grudge Match - Mathieu St-Jacques beat Player UNO in 11:00 by submission. UNO wrestled one armed for most of the match.

C*4: In an extremely hard-hitting and competitive match, Mathieu St. Jacques forced Player Uno to submit to a cross-face armbar. Uno hurt his arm early in the match, and St. Jacques spend the majority of the contest focusing on the injured limb. Despite his best efforts, St. Jacques proved too much for Uno. Following the match, St. Jacques continued to pound on Uno, and to make matters worse, he was joined by Thomas Dubois in the assault. Both men celebrated following the beat down of Uno. The question now becomes, where does Thomas Dubois stand in relation to The Authority? It is well known that Dubois and St. Jacques are a well-known Quebec tandem. Has Dubois have found his way into the growing faction in C*4?

RT: UNO is (of course) fantastic and he found some innovative ways to fight Mathieu St-Jacques with just one arm.

*****

LT: In a shocking upset Ronin Josh Alexander beat Textbook Tyson Dux in 12:31. That wasn't in the Textbook!

C*4: In a highly competitive and extremely hard hitting contest, “Ronin” Josh Alexander continued his winning streak by pinning “Textbook” Tyson Dux. Both men hit each other with everything that they had. The finish came after Alexander nailed Dux with a roaring elbow to the back of Dux’s head, and knocked him out.

RT: Hey! Marc P.! Invest in a thesaurus or find a new way to say "competitive." Unfortunately Ronin Josh Alexander does nothing for me. This was a match that the wrestlers liked because of its technical excellence, but the crowd basically shat on it, because it felt like the two men were ignoring the crowd for most of the match. The other problem is that both wrestlers make good straight men working against crazier wrestlers, but the put the two together and it is like beige fighting vanilla.

*****

LT: Sebastian Suave vs Vuxx Vellmar. Vuxx Velmarr could best be described as a crazy Québécois homeless guy who somehow knows Muay Thai. You can call this match #OccupySebastianSuave. Sebastian Suave believes the ref is neither fair nor balanced. (It's Mitt Romney vs The Rent Is Too Damn High.) Your winner is Sebastian Suave in 12:01, but really in a match like that there are no losers.

C*4: In the “Authority Open Challenge”, Sebastian Suave, pinned the debuting Buxx Belmar, in a very exciting match-up. Suave’s victory came with the assistance of his manager, Selezya Sparx. Selezya helped distract Bellmar several times during the match, and in the end, the double team of Suave and Sparx proved too much for ‘Dirty’ Buxx.

RT: I misheard screwed up during the show, it is Buxx Belmar not Vuxx Velmar. Buxx is actually the former Busty Love, but he has had a complete personality transplant and it works so so well. Every move that he makes now is character based and if your wrestling comes from a character and a compelling one to boot than you can't possibly go wrong. Someone to watch.

*****

LT: C4 Championship Triple XXX SeXXX XXXpress SeXXXy Eddy vs The Emperor Stu Grissom. Senior moment it's The Emperor Stu Grayson not Grissom. #MyBad. The Voice wimps out when announcing SeXXXy Eddy says Eddy has five pounds in his trunks. Makes it sound like Eddy took a dump in his thong. The correct announcement naturally is "Five pounds of pure cock-meat!"

The Emperor mocks Eddy by stripping sloooooowly but Eddy counters with the Testicular Claw. Eddy is rocking a great White Man Fro tonight btw. The winner by submission and still C4 Champion The Emperor Stu Grayson (in 11:08). The lesson, as always, when wrestling Sexxxy Eddy make sure your manager is a pretty red head with big tits and no morals.

C*4: C*4 Champion, “The Emperor” Stu Grayson forced Sexxxy Eddy to submit, using his patented Dragon Sleeper. Once again, Authority valet, Selezya Sparx used her assets to help distract Eddy at various times throughout the match. Eddy fought hard, but in the end fell to the Champ.

RT: Eddy literally got off a plane from Japan to wrestle in this match. He has every possible excuse to take the night off, but Eddy (as he so often does) brought it, rising to the level of his adversary and as Eddy does with his best opponents forcing Stu to step up his game as well. We too easily forget how much all of Quebec Canadian wrestling owes to Eddy. Without his gold lame thong, there is no Steenerico.

*****

LT: Main Event Kevin Steen and Franky the Mobster vs Speedball Mike Bailey and RHINO! It is possible that my biggest contribution to independent wrestling may have been naming Mike Bailey "Speedball". Steen objects to Franky shaking hands with Speedball. Franky roars like a lion with a toothache "I'M NICE!!!" Steen does not object to Franky shaking hands with Rhino #HeMayBeLearning.

Steen kicks Speedball so hard that he scans the horizon afterwards #HA. Franky the Mobster makes for a very unusual and unlikely Jiminy Cricket #AlsoMoreTanned. Rhino makes the hot tag and Kevin Steen sprints out of the ring likely someone just announced the Crafts and Services tent was open. Speedball dodges a Kevin Steen snot rocket. Franky gets the loogie right in the face #OHOH. Speedball Mike Bailey pins Steen with a top rope floppy thing (Shooting Star Press?) after Franky kills Kevin 13:20.

C*4: In the Main Event, the team of “Speedball” Mike Bailey and Rhino claimed the win over “Mr. Wrestling” Kevin Steen and Franky the Mobster. Throughout the match, Steen avoided Rhino, several times tagging out to Franky. The finish saw all four men going at it, when Steen accidentally spit on Franky. Finally having enough, Franky laid Steen out with a sit-out chokebomb. Franky stormed out of the ring, leaving Steen alone. After a moment, Kevin got back to his feet, only to find himself knocked flat by a huge Gore by Rhino. Bailey capatalized and delivered a sky-high shooting star press on to Steen, and scored the victory.

RT: I could nit-pick: Rhino could have been used a bit more in the match. It was a little weird that Kevin Steen was always running away from Mike Bailey.

But, again, that would be nit-picking. On a night when multiple other matches threatened to steal the show, the main-eventers stole it right back. The story that they told worked perfectly, with Kevin as the craven opportunist using Franky to give him opportunities to stomp on Bailey, and Franky as Kevin's friend, unwilling bodyguard, and strangely Kevin's conscience.

There are good silences in wrestling and there are poor silences in wrestling. When Kevin blew that snot-rocket and Bailey (incredibly) DODGED IT, the whole place went dead silent waiting to see what Franky would do. It was a fantastic Holy Shit! moment and based purely on character. Something that they had spent the whole match building up to.

This was a really, really great show. Even the match that felt to me the weakest (Josh Alexander/Tyson Dux) probably comes across better on DVD as a technical spectacle. Well worth buying when C*4 puts it together.

Who Is the Director? AJ Korkidakis is undoubtedly a product of the digital age - so much so that he rejects the title filmmaker in favour of the more contemporary "digital media artist". Though not the catchiest title, it's the only one that does justice to the variety of media he finds himself working in: AJ works professionally in film, video, motion graphics, animation, photography and design.

Ever since graduating from Concordia University with a degree in Communications in 2010, he has jumped head first into the Montreal media scene, refusing to pass up any opportunity to collaborate with others and learn new things. His clients have ranged from organizations like the Canadian government, the Montreal Police, various museums and university organizations all the way to local musicians like Kid Koala, the Sevens Project and Lunice. He also has had a successful run at web commercial contests, having won honours from companies like Kraft, Doritos, TMZ and others.

AJ's short films and music videos have screened internationally at festivals and have been broadcast on television, and his work has received two awards from the YoungCuts film festival. He is also a founding member of the CEASE Art Collective in Montreal, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting local arts.

What Is It? Animated Music Video Using Photo Collage

Who Did the Music? Sevens Project (featuring Patrick Watson)

How Long Is It? 3:33

What Is It About? Where do memories go when we don't want them anymore? The journey of an abandoned moment from the past, searching for a new home, told through a series of photographs and stop motion animation.

When Did YoungCuts Play It? 2011

Why Did YoungCuts Play It? The amount of work necessary to create this film is staggering. At 24 frames per second, and with each character in the film requiring sequential photographs, this film probably required more than 6,000 photos which all had to be kept in the exact order. It doesn't hurt that the sweet, simple existential story that it tells perfectly fits the mournful song that it was written for.

What Awards Did It Win? Top 100 Short Films YoungCuts Film Festival, Winner of the Virgin Radio 96 Award for Best Music Video

Filmmaker Statement This was a profoundly personal project - though incredibly time consuming, the scale of the film meant it could be created nearly entirely on my own (with help from my very patient girlfriend.) This allowed the entire process to be very contemplative, an experience that was of course aided by the beautiful music I had as inspiration. The project was a nice break from the standard big crew video set - and this music video also embodies the apex of my love/hate relationship with stop motion animation.

If you are a young filmmaker and would like to submit your short film to the 2012 YoungCuts Film Festival, HERE'S HOW! We just announced a great Animation Prize which includes a free spot in a one day Animation Masterclass given by Disney animator Andreas Deja (designer of Scar from The Lion King amongst many other things.)

If you like short films, support the YoungCuts Film Festival and watch some great ones! If you are a young animator, learn how you can meet and learn from a Disney animator! And if you are a young filmmaker, learn how to submit your short film to the Premiere Showcase for Great Short Films by the World's Best Young Filmmakers!

1. Become a Judge!

For the first time the YoungCuts Film Festival is allowing the public to watch films submitted to the festival and vote for their favourites. Based on this People's Choice voting, up to 20 films will be picked for our Top 100, with the remaining films picked by our traditional film juries.

For the price of a movie ticket, you can watch dozens of films and vote for your favourites!

Subscribers currently can watch films from the 2011 YoungCuts Film Festival. They can also watch and vote for films that were considered for last year's festival in our Repechage or Second Chance selection. And they can watch and vote for films that have already been submitted in our Early Bird selection. We will be adding new film galleries every two weeks from now until July, so subscribers will have plenty of films to watch!

Studio Technique Montreal and YoungCuts are pleased to offer the opportunity for a young animator to meet and learn from legendary Disney animator Andreas Deja!

About Andreas Deja

Andreas Deja has worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation for 30 years. He has created some of the most memorable characters animation has known, and has worked on several Academy Award winning films. He is also one of only a few animators the Disney Studio has authorized to draw Mickey Mouse.

Andreas is a recipient of the Winsor McCay Award for outstanding contribution to the art of animation, presented in 2006 at the 35th Annie Awards. He is responsible for many of animation’s famous characters, including Roger Rabbit, King Triton, Gaston, Scar, Jafar, Hercules, Lilo, and Mama Odie. He is also the creator of the world famous blog Deja View. Andreas is one of the industry’s leading animators, respected by his peers all over the world for his remarkable influence on the art form.

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We will be featuring animated films submitted to the YoungCuts Film Festival on our web-site as part of our People's Choice voting. Based on that voting, YoungCuts will select ten films for our Animation jury to consider for a special Animation prize. The winner will have a free seat in a Shop Talk Masterclass given by Andreas Deja - aone-day Animation Intensive Seminar, held in downtown Montreal (June 2, 2012). (The prize does not include travel and/or lodgings in Montreal, but this a rare opportunity to learn from a 30 year award-winning Disney veteran, and well worth the trip for any serious student of animation.)

The Shop Talk Masterclass is not software specific and is accompanied by visual presentations. The class is suitable for animation industry professionals, students or animation enthusiasts. For more information on the class and how to sign up to meet and learn from Andreas Deja, click HERE!

And if you are a young animator (or know someone who is) keep reading on how to submit your film!

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3. Submit Your Great Short Film Today!

So far this year, we have received submissions in more than ten languages, from more than twelve countries. Take advantage of our regular submission fees by submitting your short film for consideration before March 31st. We do accept films after our regular deadline, but the later your film is submitted (and the longer it is) the less chance there is of it being picked. Remember that even if your film is not completed, you can still take advantage of our lower submission fees by submitting your film and reserving your film's spot in front of our judges!

And for the next two weeks, until March 5th, take advantage of this coupon code YCNL2 for a $5 rebate on your submission fee when you submit your great short film!

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About Me

I am the Festival Director for the YoungCuts Film Festival; the head writer/publicist/SHILL~ for the International Wrestling Syndicate; and the Commissioner and Worst Ring Announcer in the Multiverse for Inter-Species Wrestling.